Show fAO AAA let our motto be GOOD HEALTH BY DR LLOYD ARNOLD professor of alsa bacteriology nol nd preventive of illinois anois C liege of medicine WHOOPING COUGH anyone who has seen a child go through the strangling vomiting phase of whooping cough certainly wishes that whooping cough might he wiped off the tace race of the earth whooping boug cough gh is a major infectious disease it causes or more deaths yearly in this country to in the seven yearn ending in 1931 there there were irately 2000 deaths from whooping cough in the state of illinois or an of about a year during 1931 and part of 1932 19 cases were reported to the 1111 riis health department by physicians of the state ninety per cent of the deaths occur in children under three years of g ge the largest number of deaths occur in n the second half of the first year girls are more susceptible to whooping cough than boys are it is the only communicable disease of childhood in which there is this sex distine dis distinction tion death rates are lit litber higher ber in the rural al districts than in the cities and t the he disease la Is more severe in colder climates than in the warm zones while few deaths occur past six years of age anyone may get whooping cough parents if they have not had it before sometimes ret get it from their children but when one has had a case of this disease one is usually immune to a second attack so far as Is known monkeys are the only animals besides man that earl can contract whooping cough this Is one reason why it has been difficult for bacteriologists to experiment with this disease as monkeys are scarce and expensive indeed the papers reported recently the plight of a cleveland doctor who is trying to 11 lind ind the cause of the distinctive whoop lie ile had secured four chimpanzees at a cost of 3 0 each ile he gave the disease to two of the an finals but kept the other two isolated for a later experiment but in som way these two also got it and he la iq unable to give any ore of the four a second attack so he has to get a new lot of chimpanzees before he can continue his work whooping cough is transmitted from person to person in secretions of the mouth and nose and by kissing and close contact it is not contagious dur ing the period of incubation which la Is from two to three weeks usually four teen to sixteen days but it can be transmitted from the appearance of the first symptom and it is most contagious during the early stage before the whoop develops it may also be corn com munica ted in the late stages and toi rot some time after colv convalescence ales cence we have not discovered any vaccine for it yet either for its prevention ol 01 its cure as we have for diphtheria but in 1900 1906 two del belgian an scientists gengor and the famous bordet dis covered the bacteria that cause whoop ing cough these bacteria live fat fai down fn an the bronchial tubes however and for a number of years doctors tried out various methods of raisin raising the bac terla teria to 0 o the surface but with many patients they were lot successful in ID doln doing so then ton years later two german scientists Ch chievitz levitz and meyer invented a cou cough h plate which was perfected by a danish scientist madsen this Is a shallow tin box with a cover the size of the palm of the hand to which a special media Is put the pan is held hed before the m aith lath of the coughing in child then the cover la Is put on oil and the box sent to a laboratory to find out if aie whooping cough germ is present the reason it Is advisable to hav this his test made Is because some nervous children develop a cough that rosem bles whooping cough and yet ano it would be a hardship to isolate them from other children and in the firs stages of whooping cou cough b the cough couet does not differ so muen from the cou cough t of a severe bronchial cold the point is that if a child has become exposed to whooping cough and then develops a cold that child should be suspected of having something wort mor than a cold that will yield to bom remedies A physician should be called at once and the culture made if tilt tb culture Is positive then the child should be kept away from other ahll dren particularly babies there is a strong ray of hope though in the whooping cough situation several V doctors here and abroad 1 who art are ra devoting much time to whooping cough have bave made very promising progress is in their development of a vaccine for its iti prevention and a strum serum for its cure ca C western aalok |